Ease on Down the Road, Again: A Look Back at 'The Wiz' - Biography.com Nostalgia Ease on Down the Road, Again: A Look Back at 'The Wiz' As The Wiz Live! airs tonight on NBC, here's a look at the musical's first film version, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. Avatar: Social count: 19 As The Wiz Live! airs tonight on NBC, here's a look at the musical's first film version, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. 19 0 The cast of the 1978 film version of The Wiz (from left): Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as the Tinman, Diana Ross as Dorothy and Ted Ross as the Cowardly Lion. As NBC broadcasts The Wiz Live! tonight, one’s thoughts may drift back to the musical’s first film version, in 1978. That picture, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Diana Ross as Dorothy along with Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, was based on the smash, Tony-winning 1975 Broadway show, which in turn was derived from L.

Frank Baum’s classic 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The main comparison point for the 1978 movie, of course, was not the novel or the Broadway musical, but the Judy Garland MGM classic from 1939. The Wiz Live! can only dream of becoming the kind of television perennial The Wizard of Oz turned into after it was first broadcast in 1956. Competing with its indelible impression on the moviegoing public was only one challenge Lumet and company faced when they started production on The Wiz in 1977. The movie of The Wiz was significantly different from the Broadway show. Although the show had an all-black cast as well as an African-American composer (Charlie Smalls), director (Geoffrey Holder), and choreographer (George Faison), and featured songs (“Ease on Down the Road,” “No Bad News”) in the soul and rock mode, the story was laid in a Kansas and Oz familiar from earlier versions. For the film, producer Rob Cohen, screenwriter Joel Schumacher, and director Sidney Lumet changed the setting to a “fantastically transformed New York,” in Cohen’s words.

The dreary Kansas Dorothy is swept from was re-imagined as a dreary Harlem, while the Oz she is swept into was located mostly downtown, in fantasy versions of landmarks like New York Public Library, the World Trade Center, the subway system, and Coney Island. The character of Dorothy herself was transformed, mainly because Diana Ross had a bee in her bonnet about playing the role. In the show, 17-year-old Stephanie Mills gave as fair a rendition of Baum’s little girl as did 16-year-old Judy Garland in the MGM movie. But Diana Ross was 32 when she convinced producer Cohen and Motown executive Berry Gordy Jr. to cast her as Dorothy, and so the character mutated into a timid 24-year-old kindergarten teacher who had never ventured south of 125th Street. This development prompted original director John Badham’s departure, and became the focus of much of the criticism directed at the finished film. New Yorker critic Pauline Kael said Ross’s insistence on playing the role was “possibly the chief example in movie history of a whim of iron.” Michael Jackson’s performance as the Scarecrow represented his only significant film appearance.

Casting for The Wiz included a mix of actors reprising their stage roles (including Ted Ross as the Cowardly Lion and Mabel King as Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West) and those who were new to the property (like Nipsey Russell , cast as the Tinman; Lumet’s then-mother-in-law Lena Horne as Glinda the Good Witch; and Richard Pryor in the title role). Generating the most buzz was the casting of 19-year-old Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow: the youngest member of the Jacksons singing group received some of the movie’s best reviews, but a suitable follow-up role became increasingly hard to find for the ever-evolving King of Pop. The movie poster for the first film version of The Wiz (1978). The Wiz was a New York production all the way. Locations used around the city included Lincoln Center, the Broadway theatre district, Astor Place, both Shea and Yankee Stadiums, and the New York State Pavilion at the old 1964 World’s Fair site.

Filming actually began with a night shoot on the World Trade Center plaza, where several hundred dancers costumed by such fashion icons as Ralph Lauren , Oscar de la Renta , Bill Blass , and Norma Kamali welcomed Dorothy and friends to the movie’s version of the Emerald City. Interiors were shot at Astoria Studios, the 1920s-era, near-defunct Queens production center that subsequently enjoyed a still-vital resurgence of activity. Was Werner Erhard an uncredited consultant on the film? According to several sources including producer Cohen, Diana Ross and screenwriter Schumacher were both acolytes of Erhard’s faddish EST movement, and incorporated the guru’s self-actualizing philosophies and buzzwords into the script, especially in Glinda the Good Witch’s dialogue. The homily-stuffed song “Believe in Yourself,” though written for the stage show, echoed the EST message handily. Neither Ross nor Erhard, in the end, could make The Wiz a hit. Admittedly, it was a tall order, given the production’s ultimate cost.

Ross’s first two movies (Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany) had done big business, and with her on board, Universal Pictures greenlit the project without a budget. Despite the best efforts of director Lumet, previously renowned for bringing in films under-schedule and under-budget, the price tag on The Wiz kept on rising to a then-extravagant $24 million. When the movie’s box-office take stalled at around $13 million, it became clear that the ink on Universal’s books would stay red. Bad reviews, a dwindling appetite for musicals, and perhaps limited “crossover” appeal (in other words, not enough interest on the part of white audiences) seemed to seal its doom, although the film did gain a following on homevideo. Will The Wiz Live! fare better? Tune in tonight for the verdict. Black Entertainment : - THE WIZ AND THE WIZARD OF OZ | Black Community Discussion Forum Black Community Discussion Forum The Wiz is a 1975 Broadway musical, based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, exclusively featuring African American actors.

A motion picture adaptation of The Wiz was produced in 1978 (see 1978 in film) by Motown Productions and Universal Pictures, starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor, and Mabel King. The resulting film version of The Wiz also starred former Motown star Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man, and Lena Horne as Glinda the Good Witch. Ted Ross and Mabel King reprised their respective roles of the Cowardly Lion and Evilene from the Broadway production. Sidney Lumet served as director, working with screenwriter Joel Schumacher (who used none of Brown's stage script) and music supervisor Quincy Jones. Although the stage musical's setting begins in Kansas before moving into the fanciful Oz (as do most other versions of the Oz stories), the film version of The Wiz is set in New York City: Dorothy's real-life home is in Harlem, and the Oz of the film is an alternate fantasy version of the rest of New York City. The $22 million production was poorly received by critics and grossed only $12 million during its original theatrical release.

THE WIZARD OF OZ ) The film, set in what is most likely late nineteenth-century Kansas, follows schoolgirl Dorothy Gale who lives on a farm with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, but dreams of a better place "somewhere over the rainbow." After being struck unconscious during a tornado, by a piece of broken window, Dorothy dreams that she, her dog Toto, and the farmhouse are transported to the magical Land of Oz. There, the Good Witch of the North advises Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to Emerald City and meet the Wizard of Oz, who can return her to Kansas. During her journey, she meets a Scarecrow, Tin Man and a Cowardly Lion, who join her, hoping to receive what they lack themselves (a brain, a heart, and courage, respectively), all of this is done while also trying to avoid the many plots of the Wicked Witch of the West, in her attempt to get the ruby slippers that Dorothy received from the squashed Wicked Witch of the East. Dorothy - Diana Ross +103 *deep sigh* as my eyes cloud over in memory...

I remember the day so clearly - November 21st, 2007 - I attended Brother Oldsoul's weekly Black Consciousness Raising class - this one was entitled Homicide in Oz. I attended the class, certain he would be referring to the TV prison series OZ.. but lo and behold, it was about the Wizard of Oz and all the cute sidekicks.. the lion, the scarecrow, the tinman.. and within the next hour the magic of Oz was cruelly ripped from my mind and torn to shreds by the info that was revealed that fateful day. *sigh again* I urge everyone who still fancies this as a magical childhood movie to listen to the class here: ... you'll start the tumble into reality within the first 5 minutes... I cant even repeat it.. I'm still healing Still, despite the facts.. I continued to research with the hope of finding one redeeming aspect of this movie that would return some of it's magic to me. I failed. The story was purposely written in order to prepare white children for a violent future enforcing racism.

The Irishman, Frank Baum (author) was an extreme racist (late 1800's) - violently so, calling for the complete extermination of the Native Indians. In the original story the wicked witch of the west was a "Brown Pickaninny" with long black braids.. Baum created Emerald City after Emerald Isle - sacred place to the Irish.. the poppy fields.. were opium fields.. drug warfare.. Lets not forget the Imperial Wizard of 1869 (the KKK) (one hides behind a mask, the other a curtain..) and the Jim Crow lynch laws & the scarecrow.. the entire book/movie is absolutely riddled with these blatant symbols. Bottom line taught is "there is no place like home" so no matter what it takes or who you have to kill for whatever reason - to secure your newly adopted home.. you should. redemption through violence. :spin: (I haven't seen the Wiz) IS the wizard still wonderful? L. Frank Baum was a racist who called for exterminating American Indians . . . IS the wizard still wonderful?

Story behind the story The first time I saw the movie The Wizard of Oz, my parents sat close by to protect me from wicked witches and flying monkeys. It was 1969, and when Oz burst onto the screen in glorious Technicolor, alas, the effect was lost on our black and white television. The second time I saw The Wizard of Oz, it was on the big screen. Jenny Campbell's fifth birthday was announced outside on the marquee, and at intermission (!) we ate hot dogs and cupcakes in the lobby. I was hooked! I saw the movie again and again. I read the books. I attended a stage production of The Wiz. And in college a terrific American history professor clued me in to the secret grown-up allegory behind the children's story: Baum, it turned out, was a silverite, part of a populist Western movement to switch the U.S. dollar from the gold standard, favored by Eastern power brokers, to silver. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's first conquest is the wicked Witch of the East- which frees the Munchkins from servitude.

Her slippers are silver (not ruby, as in the film), and she follows the yellow brick road, creating parity between silver and gold. Along her journey she meets the Scarecrow (symbolizing the small farmer), who's been told he has no brain; the Tin Woodman (the industrial worker), who fears he has become heartless; and the Cowardly Lion (reformers who had lost the courage to fight). Should kids be taught about all this? I haven't answered these questions for myself yet. I watched The Wizard of Oz again the other night, happily singing along with Judy Garland - but unable to lose myself fully in the story. I was on the lookout for hidden racism and found none. But when the Wizard was once again shown to be a fraud, it didn't seem startling at all. (I haven't seen the Wiz) Click to expand...

hahaaaaaa,this is funny because whenever i watch this flick i point out the same things[and laugh my head off at the ironies]the witch of the east is the drug dealer of oz and the monkeys are her enforcers,as for the good and powerful wizard he's just like the politicians of today-as long as they keep it in the ghetto and out of the emerald city then what's the problem[bring me the broomstick]political assassination[take her out and no charges will be filed]oh and what about the munchkins?the suburbs with their private security[glenda the good witch of the north]halarious. University of Kansas professor Joe Reitz says the project honoring characters including Dorothy, The Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion should be reconsidered. "To build a monument to a man who advocated genocide among Native Americans in this part of the country seems to be financially suicidal," Reitz said.

"If you give people a reason not to spend money, they probably won't do it." Historian Nancy Koupal, director of research and publishing at the South Dakota State Historical Society, which recently published a book, "Baum's Road to Oz: The Dakota Years," said Baum was concerned for his safety when he wrote the editorials and that genocide was not a theme he returned to in later writings. "It was not a deeply felt conviction," she said. "You scratch any of your heroes, you're not going to like what you find in the closet." +103 YungMiss said: ↑ hm sometimes people try to analyze things to a point till they do seem racist... anything can be stretched.. and yes they should be taught the connections to the guilded age later on in life...like i was.. its interesting how people create things and they can relate to real life events without intent Click to expand... When folks question intent/purpose of highly popular media, it is often they'll be called conspiracy theorists in an passive aggressive attempt to silence/ridicule them. Some are so outraged at the mere thought of looking behind the curtain they wont even glance at it in fear or being forced to see what's behind it.

Yet - outside of the racist/cult symbolism throughout the movie, the story line is... amazing. How easily we accept this as a feel good movie. First you kill a stranger, then another stranger shows up to celebrate death and steals the deceased belongings and gifts them to you - haha - Then LIES to you and sends you on a wild journey of death and carnage.. conveniently murdering folks that stand in opposition to a cause you are led to believe is your own... lied to every step of the way by someone you assume is good (although they never said that)... only to find out at the end that it was all for nothing and you could have gone home anytime you liked. The Wiz (1978) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error An adaptation of 'The Wizard of Oz' that tries to capture the essence of the African-American experience.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC "No Small Parts" IMDb Exclusive: 'Edge of Seventeen' Star Hailee Steinfeld Hailee Steinfeld has received critical acclaim for her role in the coming-of-age comedy The Edge of Seventeen . What other roles has she played over the years? Don't miss our live coverage of the Golden Globes beginning at 4 p.m. PST on Jan. 8 in our Golden Globes section. a list of 24 titles created 27 May 2012 a list of 30 titles created 14 Jan 2014 a list of 31 titles created 9 months ago a list of 45 titles created 6 months ago a list of 38 titles created 3 months ago Search for " The Wiz " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 1 win & 7 nominations.

See more awards » Videos Edit Storyline Dorothy, a twenty-four-year-old kindergarten teacher, born; raised; and still working in Harlem, is celebrating Thanksgiving with her extended family, but she doesn't seem to be thankful for much in life. She lives a self-imposed sheltered life; she is shy and unfulfilled. Things change for her when she is caught in a snowstorm while chasing after her dog, Toto. They are transported to the mysterious Land of Oz, where she is informed that the only possible way to find her way back home is through the assistance of the powerful wizard in Emerald City. As she goes searching for him, she befriends some creatures who are facing problems in life just as she is. In their quest to find and get help from the wizard, they also face Evillene, the equally evil sister of Evermean, the wicked witch, whom Dorothy inadvertently killed when she arrived in Oz, and who may be their biggest obstacle in achieving their goals. Written by Huggo The Wiz! The Stars! The Music! Wow!

See more » Genres: 24 October 1978 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Dolby (35 mm prints)| 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Simultaneously with the release of the film, Congoleum, the flooring company that designed the look of the Yellow Brick Road for the film, also marketed the same design (also called Yellow Brick Road) for home use. See more » Goofs The scarecrow is still learning how to walk after he got down from the pole. When Dorothy runs to the taxis, the scarecrow walks perfectly to another place behind Dorothy. When they sing "Ease on down the road," the scarecrow is sill trying to walk to the Yellow Brick Road. See more » Quotes Scarecrow : Now I'll never get my brain! Tinman : Nor my heart. Lion : Or my courage Dorothy : But you don't need them now because you've had them all the time. Scarecrow, you're the one who figured out how to find the yellow brick road and how to destroy Evillene, and every smart move we've made, didn't you?

Lion, you wouldn't even give up when Evillene strung you up by your tail. And, Tin Man, you have more heart than anyone I've ever known. Fitzstephens, Jack ... Music Editor & Guru See more » Connections Featured in Tarnation (2003) See more » Soundtracks Just Like a Broadway Show--from the Cheap Seats 28 August 2004 | by IconsofFright – See all my reviews I just watched this for the first time, I've was expecting a true spectacle of "bad" cinema. I was surprised to find there is a decent movie here. Some people have remarked Diana Ross was too old to play Dorothy, OK, well, so was Judy Garland. True. There's really nothing wrong with this musical--The songs are excellent, performed by some great talents. The production design is spectacular (maybe a little dated, but still something to look at). The sets are a little nightmarish looking, true, but I liked that. I reminded me of "Return of Oz", a favorite of mine too. The real problem with this movie is the damn direction and cinematography. What were they thinking?

The Munchkin scene is not only lit horribly (too dark!), but all the musical numbers seem like they're just comprised of master shots. Very few close ups of dancers, other singers, and even main characters. During the "Ease on Down the Road" number Lumet has us staring at Diana Ross and Michael Jackson's back from far away in the distance for two minutes. It felt like I was watching this movie from the cheap seats. Thus, I always felt distanced from the characters and situations, and just couldn't get into the movie. I read Sidney Lumet's book "Making Movies" and I remember him writing in detail about shooting to get proper coverage. What happened here? 31 of 52 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes 'The Wiz' is darker, weirder, and more fun than 'The Wizard of Oz' By Proma Khosla 2015-12-03 20:03:50 UTC When the Mashable Entertainment team started planning our coverage of tonight's The Wiz Live! on NBC, I had one pressing question, as a journalist: Um, what's The Wiz?

So naturally, we concluded that I would prepare for it by watching the old movie version with virgin eyes. If you're like I once was, I'll cut you a break: The Wiz is a musical Wizard of Oz adaptation with an entirely African American cast. Starring Diana Ross as Dorothy, the classic 1978 film follows her classic quest into the land of munchkins and witches — but with swinging music, graffiti, and a tongue-in-cheek sensibility that always pays tribute to the original story. It's been years since I saw The Wizard of Oz, but it always felt like an old movie, and a fantasy at that. The Wiz seemed more anchored in reality — I know a lot more about New York City than I do about rural Kansas — and from the outset, I felt more invested in its characters and their journeys. Dorothy feels like a real person — she talks the way I hear people actually talk. The rest of the movie, however, is pretty bonkers. For starters, the tornado that gets Dorothy to Oz is a "snow twister" that ends up being in the palm of Lena Horne's hand.

(Horne's Glinda, for some reason, always appears in a space-scape that looks like an old screensaver.) Dorothy quite literally crashes into Oz, and is immediately more terrified than Judy Garland's version of the character — because she's in a much more terrifying place. Dorothy lands in what looks like an abandoned park at night. Its inhabitants are far more unsettling than the original Munchkins; these ones slink around in the shadows. Beyond their musical numbers, I can't say I really enjoyed the Scarecrow (Michael Jackson), Tin Man (Nipsey Russell), or the Lion (Ted Ross) — but those characters bothered me in the original as well. Maybe what creeped me out in The Wiz was that the makeup doesn't seem any better in 1978 than it was in 1939 — or maybe I just got uncomfortable when it took 80 percent of the movie for me to realize that the Scarecrow was Michael Jackson. Those characters are eccentric enough without without additional flourishes like humans in bird costumes and the Tin Man's weirdo chorus. Image: Universal There's also a good deal of darkness in The Wiz.

Dorothy's loneliness is central to the story, and it ties her to the characters she meets along the way. The Scarecrow is being bullied when we first meet him. Later on, he and the rest of Dorothy's crew are tortured by wicked witch Evillene, whom I can scarcely begin to describe. (A question that'll echo through your mind as you watch the movie for the first time: Is this supposed to be a family film??) Let's be clear: The Wizard of Oz is super weird in general, no matter which incarnation you're talking about. What I loved about The Wiz, though, is how it not only embraces that established weirdness, but unapologetically amplifies it. There's even an all-but-direct drug reference when Dorothy and the Tin Man are lured into an alleyway and sprinkled with magical glitter. As in the original, the movie is anchored by Dorothy's sincerity — though Diana Ross tends to get a little Shelley-Duvall-in-The-Shining when she's acting scared or upset. The Wiz feels extra creepy because of its ongoing ties to our reality.

Oz is an abandoned, psychedelic Manhattan, and some of the obstacles Dorothy and her friends encounter on the way to meet The Wiz are straight out of an off-brand version of Mockingjay. The Wizard of Oz is a classic — but The Wiz is just...fun. The music is 700% cooler than the 1939 movie's, and literally had me tapping my toes. I can only imagine the choreographed chaos of the stage adaptation — and hopefully, NBC's live adaptation draws on the best of both versions. August 25, 1939 : The Wizard of Oz debuts Introduction On this day in 1939, The Wizard of Oz, which will become one of the best-loved movies in history, opens in theaters around the United States. Based on the 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), the film starred Judy Garland as the young Kansas farm girl Dorothy, who, after being knocked unconscious in a tornado, dreams about following a yellow brick road, alongside her dog Toto, to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz.

Along the way, Dorothy encounters a cast of characters, including the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Wicked Witch of the West. Though the scenes in Kansas were shot in traditional black and white, Oz appears in vivid Technicolor, a relatively new film process at the time. Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category, The Wizard of Oz lost to the Civil War-era epic Gone With the Wind. The Wizard of Oz won a Best Song Oscar for “Over the Rainbow,” which became one of Garland’s signature hits. Garland won a special award at that year’s Oscar ceremony, for Best Juvenile Performer. Filmed at MGM Studios in Culver City, California, The Wizard of Oz was a modest box-office success when it was first released, but its popularity continued to grow after it was televised for the first time in 1956. An estimated 45 million people watched that inaugural broadcast, and since then The Wizard of Oz has aired on TV countless times.

Today, some of the film’s famous lines, including “There’s no place like home” and “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” are well-known to several generations of moviegoers. The Wizard of Oz spawned two sequels, Journey Back to Oz (1974), an animated film featuring the voice of Judy Garland’s daughter, Liza Minnelli, and Return to Oz (1985). A remake with an African American cast, The Wiz, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, was released in 1978 with music arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. The Wizard of Oz was one of the first 25 films to be put on the National Film Registry, which is reserved for culturally or historically significant movies.

Article Details: August 25, 1939 : The Wizard of Oz debuts Author August 25, 1939 : The Wizard of Oz debuts URL Talkin' Broadway Regional News & Reviews - "The Wiz" - 3/7/07 White Horse Theatre Company Andrew Malone, Samara Smith, Gerald Richardson and Dwight Neal With last season's Purlie at the Goodman, last Fall's Raisin at the Court and this production of The Wiz, Chicagoans have been given the chance to visit or revisit three of the hit African-American-themed musicals of the 1970s (Ain't Misbehavin',Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and Bubbling Brown Sugar are also in this group.) The Wiz, though, can be called the king of this class, boasting a four-year Broadway run from 1975 to 1979 and a 1978 feature film translation starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor. It's a good choice for White Horse, a five-year-old company of not-all-that-recent college grads who focus on less-performed musicals that can loosely described as youth-oriented.

It's a generous choice as well. Though company members Craig Joseph, Ryan Brewster and Baron Clay provided the stage direction, musical direction and choreography, White Horse turned over the stage to African-American guest artists to perform this show, one of only two productions in the company's season. This was my first viewing of The Wiz, but I bet I'd be safe in guessing that this piece, lacking the literary credentials of a Purlie or a Raisin, has always been about entertaining the audience. As an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, there are no surprises in the story and, to my taste, not a lot of particularly clever dialogue or invention in its taking of liberties with the story. There are songs, though. Upbeat, melodic ones that make no one (other than maybe someone like the Judy Garland biographer and Wizard of Oz scholar John Fricke) wish for the Arlen-Harburg songs of the Judy Garland film. The Wiz's songs are delivered by a cast whose talent is just a bit raw, but they fully commit to the funky spirit of the piece and to giving the audience a good time. Samara Smith is a bright and energetic Dorothy.

Though her singing voice is a little thin, she wins us over as the trusting but not exactly naïve nineteen-year-old farm girl who, in a twist from the original, is reluctant to leave the Kansas farm for the bright lights of Topeka. Andrew Malone is a marvelously floppy Scarecrow and is well matched by the Tin Man of Gerald Richardson and Dwight Neal's Lion. August J. Echols is a slick and slimy Wiz, and Shayla Jarvis brings a passing resemblance and a bit of the spunky attitude of the TV Jeffersons' maid Florence to the role of good witch Addaperle. It's a special treat to see Bethany Thomas, a standout in Porchlight's In Trousers two years ago, as the bad witch Evilene. Given an unearthly shape in one of Alison Siple's imaginative and colorful costumes, her presence and cackle dominate the brief time on stage in which we get to hear her send "No Bad News" across Belmont Avenue.

Siple's costumes also include such gems as munchkins covered in floor-length flowing gowns that nearly, but not quite, conceal the office stools on which they sit and roll around the stage, letting us in on the joke; a trio of yellow-clad ensemble members forming the Yellow Brick Road; and a Tin Man covered with soft-drink and beer labels. Together with Clay's choreography, which would have fit right in on the 1960s TV show Shindig, the effects are quite dazzling in a three-quarter-century sort of way. Though the set designed by Tracy Otwell is minimal, the production values of the costumes and the perpetual motion of Clay's dancing and Joseph's blocking make this non-Equity production still quite an eyeful and a good step forward for White Horse, whose productions on smaller stages have been a little static. The Wiz runs through March 25 at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont Ave, Chicago, with Thursday and Friday performances at 7:00 p.m., Saturday performances at 2:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m.

Ticket prices are $25, with student and senior tickets for $22. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Theatre Building Chicago box office at (773) 327-5252 or online at For more information, visit . Photo: Peapod Photo The Wizard of Oz debuts - Aug 25, 1939 - HISTORY.com The Wizard of Oz debuts Share this: The Wizard of Oz debuts Author The Wizard of Oz debuts URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1939, The Wizard of Oz, which will become one of the best-loved movies in history, opens in theaters around the United States. Based on the 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), the film starred Judy Garland as the young Kansas farm girl Dorothy, who, after being knocked unconscious in a tornado, dreams about following a yellow brick road, alongside her dog Toto, to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz.

Along the way, Dorothy encounters a cast of characters, including the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Wicked Witch of the West. Though the scenes in Kansas were shot in traditional black and white, Oz appears in vivid Technicolor, a relatively new film process at the time. Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category, The Wizard of Oz lost to the Civil War-era epic Gone With the Wind. The Wizard of Oz won a Best Song Oscar for “Over the Rainbow,” which became one of Garland’s signature hits. Garland won a special award at that year’s Oscar ceremony, for Best Juvenile Performer. Filmed at MGM Studios in Culver City, California, The Wizard of Oz was a modest box-office success when it was first released, but its popularity continued to grow after it was televised for the first time in 1956. An estimated 45 million people watched that inaugural broadcast, and since then The Wizard of Oz has aired on TV countless times.

Today, some of the film’s famous lines, including “There’s no place like home” and “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” are well-known to several generations of moviegoers. The Wizard of Oz spawned two sequels, Journey Back to Oz (1974), an animated film featuring the voice of Judy Garland’s daughter, Liza Minnelli, and Return to Oz (1985). A remake with an African American cast, The Wiz, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, was released in 1978 with music arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. The Wizard of Oz was one of the first 25 films to be put on the National Film Registry, which is reserved for culturally or historically significant movies. Related Videos Over the Rainbow Meaning NEXT Why rainbows? Why wishing on stars? Why Dorothy? Of all actresses, singing all songs, in all films in American history, what makes Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" such an overwhelmingly enduring classic?

Well, we can't exactly answer those questions, but what we can do is try to trace the history of "Over the Rainbow" from the character Dorothy's humble origins in an old children's book series to Diana Ross and Michael Jackson's 1970s adaptation of The Wizard of Oz all the way to today—when we still hear "Over the Rainbow" all the time, and new versions have been on international music charts as recently as 2011 (you can also see the Lyrics tab for more on rainbows, stars, and lemon drops). In the beginning, there was the word The story of The Wizard of Oz and "Over the Rainbow" is a story with deep roots in American history, literature, and music. It extends from before 1900, when L. Frank Baum first published the children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, all the way to the present, when musicals , books , and movies (including a forthcoming Oz film featuring Mila Kunis and James Franco) continue to revisit the extended saga of Dorothy, Toto, the scarecrow, the tin man, the cowardly lion, the good and wicked witches, and the Wizard of Oz himself.

The Wizard of Oz was put to music and went on Broadway in 1903. It had a successful seven-year run, during which time Baum continued to write Oz books. An early silent film of the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was created in 1910, and in 1925 a full-length silent feature was created with the help of Baum's son (Baum died in 1919). The Oz series was extended even after Baum's death, with a total of 40 Oz books in circulation by 1940. Some have theorized that the original book is actually a complex and thorough allegory for the politics of populism in the 1890s, but L. Frank Baum insisted through his life that Oz was invented solely for the entertainment of children. It surely boosted the books' profile when The Wizard of Oz as we know it came into existence. Supported by advances in Technicolor and film sound, the filmmakers at MGM were ready for a full color Oz masterpiece in 1939.

Technicolor was the reason that the original book's silver shoes became ruby slippers—after all, why not go ruby and glittery if you can capture the effect beautifully on film? The film is also notable for its dramatic shift from black and white in the Kansas scenes to full color in the Oz scenes. Clearly, Oz had become a vehicle for the fun producers could have with their new technology (sort of like Avatar in more recent years). Today, most people know The Wizard of Oz more as a work of cinema than a work of the written word. Yip: It's more than just the sound Toto makes There was something even more important than Technicolor behind the brilliance of The Wizard of Oz: songwriters Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, a composition dream team who thought up "Over the Rainbow"—and then had to fight for its inclusion in the film. Harold Arlen was a composer who, by the early 1930s, was recognized as one of the most prolific and talented in the business. His partner, the lyricist Yip Harburg , was the mind behind the hit single "Brother Can You Spare A Dime?" in 1932.

He was an interesting character in his own right: a lifelong socialist, he has been called "Broadway's social conscience" for maintaining his anti-war, pro-labor politics even through blacklisting in the 1950s. The pair composed "It's Only A Paper Moon," one of their first collaborations, in 1933. It remained a jazz standard through much of the 20th century. They would go on to collaborate on more than 150 songs. Harburg, though, didn't really like "Over the Rainbow" much at first. Here's how the pair came to agreement on the song : "The song came to Harold out of the blue while he and his wife Anya were driving along Sunset Boulevard. He jotted the melody down in the car. But lyricist Yip Harburg did not react to it with joy, feeling that the song was too grand. Harold played it for Ira Gershwin to get a second opinion. Gershwin liked it. Harburg, in response to Gershwin's approval, composed its lyrics." The final product, despite having Gershwin's approval and Yip's sweet lyrics, was not a favorite of the filmmakers.

They apparently deleted "Over the Rainbow" from the film three separate times, worrying that it was too mature for the supposedly 12-year-old character of Dorothy, and that it slowed the plot down. Apparently they were also not too keen on an MGM star singing for several minutes in a dirty barnyard. Luckily, Judy Garland's performance completely nailed the song's innocent emotiveness, and producer Arthur Freed finally argued successfully that the song should stay. Of course, the critics loved the song more than just about anything in the film: the 1939 release was nominated for five Academy Awards and took home awards for "Best Original Song" ("Over The Rainbow," obviously) and "Best Original Music Score." (It lost in the "Best Picture" category to Gone With The Wind, whose director, Victor Fleming, actually spent a while working on Oz, too.

Tough luck.) We're not in Kansas anymore—and neither are a lot of people Judy Garland's youthful performance as Dorothy tapped into an enduring theme: the desire of children—and maybe the desire of all people—to escape their surroundings and go to a fantastical place where they have greater powers and opportunities (see also: Harry Potter , The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , Oliver Twist , and many more). Just before her dream takes her to Oz, "Over the Rainbow" captures Dorothy in the depths of loneliness and longing, wishing for pretty things, rainbows, and lemon drops—basically, she'd like to be anywhere but Kansas. There was also a subtext to Dorothy's Kansas lament that was especially relevant to the late 1930s. Lest we forget, the 1930s were the period of a terrible disaster known as the Dust Bowl , an environmental and human catastrophe caused by overworking of the fields in the plains states. A long drought combined with severely depleted soil and strong winds led to increasingly dramatic dust storms throughout the central U.S., but especially in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Between 1933 and 1939, tens of thousands of people from the plains became refugees due to the combination of economic depression and dust storms, fleeing Kansas in droves for places like California (where they heard there was work—but that's another story ). We can't help but think that Yip Harburg, who had written plenty of songs dealing with Depression-era dynamics, and others behind The Wizard of Oz knew that this get-me-the-heck-out-of-Kansas sentiment would be especially resonant in 1939. Of course, the theme of escape central to "Over the Rainbow" translates to all kinds of situations, and ultimately transcends history, but the theme of not being in Kansas anymore is also about as historically relevant as you can get. Follow the yellow brick road, along with everyone else Judy Garland's version of "Over the Rainbow" became the signature song of her ultimately very successful career as a singer and movie star (see the Calling Card tab for more on her life). Later in life, she said this about it: "The song has become a part of my life. It is symbolic of everybody's dream and that's why people get tears in their eyes when they hear it.

I have sung it dozens of times and it's still the song that is closest to my heart." Indeed, Garland kept the fires burning for "Over the Rainbow," reputedly performing it with depth and emotion every single time she gave a life performance. The song has also been covered by other singers almost countless times since. A search on Billboard.com for "Over the Rainbow" yields hundreds of versions. Everybody's trying to get over that rainbow—and in every decade, a new group or singer has given it a shot. A few covers stand out either for their success or their uniqueness: The Demensions did a cover of "Over the Rainbow" in 1960 that got the song into the Billboard charts for the first time, peaking at #16. Hawaiian singer Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole recorded a medley of "Over the Rainbow" and "What A Wonderful World" in 1993 that features him on the ukelele.

The track got some attention in the 1990s, but it was several years after his death in 1997 that his version of "Over the Rainbow" climbed up the charts internationally , peaking at #8 on the European Hot 100 in 2010 and #11 on Billboard's Digital Songs chart in 2008. The track was certified 2x Platinum in 2011. As recently as 2010, the Season 1 finale of Glee featured a cover of Iz's version of the song. And last but not least, it's hard to be a classic without at least one cover by the Muppets . Dorothy, Toto and the rest have also endured as characters, so thoroughly mythologized and explored that they might even verge on American archetypes. The 1978 film The Wiz , starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, reimagined The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through the lens of African-American culture, and used a whole new soundtrack. (The film was actually based on a stage version, which was more successful than the movie managed to be).

In 2010, several other remakes and prequels were announced by both Warner Brothers and Disney. Has the "great recession" inspired a resurgence in Oz-like escape fantasies? Or is the market for kids' movie remakes just going strong in Hollywood? Well, Shmoopers, we may never know. But the facts are the facts: "Over the Rainbow" was the American song of the 20th century, and it could well go on to be an influential part of the 21st. We will be amazed, but not surprised, if that's exactly what happens.

Question: Which 1978 film starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson was an African - American adaptation of a 1939 film starring Judy Garland?
Answer: The Wiz